Working Tax Credits/partner a student

anewloginapparently

Hi,

In trying to see if I would be eligable for benefits on finishing uni I noticed as a couple we would recieve tax credits as my girlfriend's income would be our only income (around £13k a year)...

Thing is I am wondering now if we should have been recieving this all along! Should my girlfriend have been eligable for these tax credits while I am still in full-time education or do they not count then? As haven't found anything to say having a partner in full-time education means you don't get them when you do if you have an economically inactive partner.

Any ideas?

LL30

As far as I know, yes she should be fine to claim - tell her to get on the blower x

anewloginapparently

LL30 wrote: »

As far as I know, yes she should be fine to claim - tell her to get on the blower x

Not seen anything to say we can't! If it was the other way around and me working 30 hours a week (on top of my course) and her economically inactive we'd get them, so being a student doesn't seem to preclude you!

Shame if we missed out on £2k the last year mind if we could've the whole time!

The real irony is my partner is actually paying money to them at the moment for an overclaim a few years ago!

LL30

You can write to them and ask them to back date the claim for the last three months - think this may be changing to 1 month though, unsure when! Have you popped your details in the entitledto calculator to double check it? Assuming age isn't an issue if she's claimed before.

anewloginapparently

LL30 wrote: »

You can write to them and ask them to back date the claim for the last three months - think this may be changing to 1 month though, unsure when! Have you popped your details in the entitledto calculator to double check it? Assuming age isn't an issue if she's claimed before.

Yeah we're both 29 so age is OK.

If I put our incomes into entitledto it comes up with us being given a good amount (around 40 a week) but if I tick student at the beginning for the partner it says it can't proceed with the calculation, but not because of the tax credits, just because it gets way too complicated then for all benefits I guess so hopefully we'll be alright, going to ring up tomorrow for the form!

LL30

Good luck, hope you manage to get sorted x

anewloginapparently

Just phone them and we could be eligable for upto £60 a week! Yay... To think we were struggling all this year when that extra money would've really helped us out! Oh well, better late than never!

LL30

Great news! Write a letter to ask them to backdate it for you - if you look on the site it should tell you how many days you can request it for (it's around 90 something) apparently they don't automatically backdate, so it's best to ask

anewloginapparently

LL30 wrote: »

Great news! Write a letter to ask them to backdate it for you - if you look on the site it should tell you how many days you can request it for (it's around 90 something) apparently they don't automatically backdate, so it's best to ask

Thanks will do, hopefully my girlfriend will not have to pay back what they say she owes either as she should've been eligible for tax credits anyway, guess we'll see but either way it's such a relief as it's been a struggle recently with rising bills etc.